anyone have experience with cushing's disease?

OkieDokie88

I posted this on BOTB, but thought maybe someone here would have some insight as well. 

My brother was recently diagnosed with cushing's disease, and after comparing symtoms with him my mom is convinced i have it as well.  I mean, i do have all the classic physical symptoms (and had them pre pregnancy): i have the moon face, buffalo hump, super eay bruising, massive amounts of purple striae (again, even pre preg). However, i had haven't had menstrual irregularities since i was a teenager, and that usually is a big part of cushing's.

Also, my TSH has always been the very low end of normal, but my T4 has been midrange normal. My mom had those same type of values (only her TSH was lower than mine) and it turned out it was due to a nodular goiter on her thyroid causing hyperthyroidism.  I have all the symptoms of hyperthyroidism (palpitations, heat intolerance, increased thirst, increased energy, incresaed heart rate, etc) except the whole skinny thing... I've never been skinny.  The endocrinologist my brother sees told my mom that low TSH and normal T4 often go along with cushing's as well, and in patients who have mild cushing's it is possible to be hyperthyroid as well, with the weight issues of each disorder kind of balancing out the other.

So i was just wondering if anyone on here has experience with Cushing's, and if so how did you get diagnosed? who did you go to for testing?

BrainySmurfette

My grandfather has Addison's disease, which is the reverse of Cushing's. I believe that he has low levels of cortisol, and people with Cushing's have too much. He was diagnosed by a blood test.

kkfeb04

Sorry my only experience with Cushing's is my dog, Benji, had it and boy were his meds expensive.  He produced way too much cortisol and that is how he was diagnosed.  He definitely did not have increased energy though.  He was always thirsty and always hungry.  But he didn't gain any extra weight with it, he just got round. 

If you are concerned, I bet you could just go to your family doctor and have them run the tests. 

My mom was convinced I was dying of cancer because I had a symptom of someone that had cancer.  Our moms are great self-diagnosers.  She is also convinced that every dog who throws up has Cushing's disease and is dying because Benji unfortunately developed pancreatitis which was complicated by his Addison's disease (they over-medicated for Cushings by mistake--which as previously noted is the complete opposite--his adrenal function was shot from the Lysodren) and he passed away in August of this year.